Watch as the world's first 3D-printed house goes up

ALONGSIDE a canal in Amsterdam, architects are attempting to 3D-print an entire house. If they are successful, it would be the world’s first ever 3D-printed building.

Local firm DUS Architects began work on the house earlier this year, and now curious passers-by can purchase a ticket for €2.50 to watch construction and help fund it.

The company is using The KamerMaker (Dutch for “room-maker”), a 3D printer that fits inside a 6-metre-high disused shipping container. It functions much like a desktop 3D printer, extruding hot plastic in successive layers. It has already been used to print smaller structures, including a bench.

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Each room will be printed separately as large blocks that slot together like Lego. The finished rooms can then be stacked on top of each other. The completed building should look like a traditional Dutch canal house, and will take three years to finish. It will be open to the public as a design museum, with 12 rooms dedicated to different types of 3D-printed building research.

DUS may face issues when it scales up, says Stephen Ervin of the Harvard Fabrication Laboratory. “Things that work well on your desktop or your lab suddenly don’t work well when they’re bigger,” he says.

This article appeared in print under the headline “Watch as world’s first 3D-printed house appears”